Tuesday, January 06, 2009

That's a good point, Bill

Although I cannot condone this sour-grapes quote from Sox owner John Henry after the fact.

"From the moment we arrived in Boston in late 2001, we saw it as a monumental challenge," Henry said. "We sought to reduce the financial gap, and succeeded to a degree. Now with a new stadium filled with revenue opportunities, they have leaped away from us again. So we have to be even more careful in deploying our resources."

(Note to John: They already hate us enough. Just stop. You sound like a rich prep-school kid lamenting the fact his Lamborghini isn't the most expensive car in the parking lot anymore. And while we're here, Fenway is a cash cow -- you can't play the "new stadium with revenue opportunities card" when you've done everything but stick hanging box seats on the Citgo sign.

Boston's payroll has been somewhere between $120-145 million each year for the past five. Every middle-class fan you have has been priced out unless they want to sit in the bleachers or wooden grandstand seats down the outfield lines that face second base. Just stop. Please, stop. Thank you.)

Amen.

I don't think people instinctively hate teams with high payrolls, only when they're successful and whine when they don't win with mini All-Star teams.

(If you think this post was just a weak excuse to test the new hosting capabilities as the site creeps back online, you're totally right. I should have done a redesign or something while I was at it...)